It is known to hydroform tubular components. Hydroformed tubular components are becoming increasingly popular in automotive body structural applications. During vehicle body manufacturing, many of the hydroformed tubular components are joined to one another. One method for joining the hydroformed tubular components is to make a straight cut butt joint as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 1A. In this joint, hydroformed tubular members 6 and 7 have straight cut ends and one end of the tubular member 7 is butted against the side of the other tubular member 6 and welded together. Another method for joining the hydroformed tubular components is to make a shirt tail joint as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 2A. In this joint, hydroformed tubular members 6 and 8 have straight cut ends and the tubular member 8 has a flange 9 overlapping the tubular member 6 when one end of the tubular member 8 is butted against the side of the other tubular member 6 and welded together. However, these joints require costly precision end cut processing due to joint dimensional variation and positional variation.
As a result, it is desirable to provide a new method of joining tubular members together to form a joint therebetween. It is also desirable to provide a method of joining tubular members together without costly precision end cut processing. It is further desirable to provide a joint for joining tubular members together that accommodates joint dimensional variation and positional variation. Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide a new joint and method of joining tubular members together that meets these desires.